Death-zone Image Lingers In San Salvador's Nightclubs

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR — The Zona Rosa is a tiny strip of outdoor cafes, restaurants and bars that passes for this embattled city's nightclub district.

A month and a half ago the joints were packed and jumping, the air filled with the convivial jumble of canned music and bilingual chatter. In most places today the help outnumbers the customers. You can get a beer, a burger and a table without waiting.

The nighttime picture drastically changed June 19 when the shooting started. When it stopped 13 people lay dead, including four off-duty U.S. Marines and two U.S. businessmen. Leftist guerrillas disguised as Salvadoran soldiers took responsibility for the attack.

The cafe owners, workers and the few patrons in evidence say life must go on, that they doubt the shooting will happen again and that it's as safe here as anywhere in a country gripped by years of political terror and civil war.

But these assurances, some published as ads in local papers, and enticements such as free table wine are not yet enough to lure back the well- heeled throngs of fun-seekers.

''One of our best friends died here that night,'' says the owner of a once popular outdoor cafe, ''but we have to continue on.''

Adds his wife, sitting with him only a few empty, brightly painted tables from where the Marines died: ''I am here because you have to show people you are not afraid.''

Yet people are afraid. Suggestions to companions that a visit to the ''Pink Zone'' might be in order are met with sudden professions of tiredness or work to do. Zona proprietors estimate it will take several months before the collective memory fades and the crowds return.

Some Americans -- diplomats, business types and the occasional journalist -- do show up from time to time, but ''their hair is full, not like the Marines,'' says a waiter.

Since the shooting, Marines have been allowed to grow their hair longer but few have returned to the Zona. Embassy officials are transforming their workday compound into a high-walled fortification and have taken other unpublicized precautions as well.

''It is a stated policy of the rebels that they are going to kill more Americans,'' said a U.S. diplomat who asked for anonymity.

In a society where violence has become a virtual institution, some people believe survival can hinge on one's appearance.

''There is a saying in target-shooting here: Shoot for the white, the bull's eye,'' says a Salvadoran. ''We use it to mean the same thing with people. You'll be all right if you're not blanco -- you know, light-haired and light skinned. I don't think I'd want to sit too close to you in the Zona.''

In truth, ethnic characteristics have mattered little in the growing body count. It is estimated that nearly 60,000 Salvadorans have died violently since 1979. Only a fraction were military casualties arising from conventional combat between guerrilla and U.S.-backed government forces. Last year government forces say their losses in terms of killed, wounded or captured were 2,834, down about 300 from the previous year.

The bulk of this Central American nation's casualties has been attributed to political terror waged by right-wing death squads and leftist extremists. For example, seven Latin Americans died in the Zona attack.

''There is a lot of hate here,'' says a 33-year-old Salvadoran doctor who witnessed the Zona attack from his car.

Although rightist killings have tapered off -- cynics suggest there isn't anyone left to kill -- leftist killings and terrorism have risen.

More than a dozen mayors have been kidnapped since February. Three are reported to have been killed. Dozens of town halls have been torched. Military officers have been assassinated in front of their homes, in the street or on tennis courts. Power failures caused by rebel explosions are common.

Though down from levels of previous years, the violent right remains active and despite moderate President Jose Napoleon Duarte's stated efforts it remains relatively immune from justice. Testimony by a former U.S. military officer and his wife, implicating a Salvadoran officer in the five-year-old murders of two American agricultural advisers, was recently rejected by a Salvadoran judge.

Death squads still claim victims, and a rightist group calling itself the Secret Anti-Communist Army has issued several death threats. Sources with connections to the left tell of people being followed, the motive apparently to know where to find targets should there be a resurgence of death squad actions.

This latter development has led to concern that anti-terrorist training given to Salvadoran forces by U.S. advisers might be used for political terror.

''We've made it clear to the Salvadorans that the best way to shut off this aid program is for them to get involved in some sort of . . . death squad activity,'' says a senior military observer.